This invention relates to personal computing devices and, more particularly, to personal computing device control using face detection and recognition.
A personal computing device may include any computing device or computer-controlled device capable of interacting or interfacing with a person. Types of personal computing devices may include personal computers, consumer electronics, personal media devices, personal communications devices, personal display devices, vehicle control systems, financial transactions systems, and any like computing device capable of interfacing with a person. Consumer electronic devices may include, without limitations, televisions, stereo systems, video gaming systems, cameras, video cameras, and task-specific computing devices. Personal computers may include, without limitation, desktop computers, laptop computers, portable computers, workstations, server interfaces, and handheld computers. Personal media devices may include, without limitation, cellular telephones, MP3 players, portable video players, media capable cellular telephones, and satellite media players. Personal communications devices may include wireless communications devices, cellular telephones, satellite phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), and other like communications devices. Vehicle control systems may include, without limitation, consumer electronic devices, personal media devices, personal communication devices, vehicle operating systems, and vehicle monitoring systems. Financial transactions systems may include, without limitation, automatic teller machines (ATM), store purchase/check-out systems, credit card transaction systems, and remote purchase systems.
The proliferation of such personal computing devices is so extensive and pervasive that many tasks performed by individuals, in their daily lives, involve some form of interaction with one or more personal computing devices. Typically, users can actively or passively interface with a personal computing device. Active interfacing may include typing words on a keyboard, saying words, scrolling through a list, using a mouse pointer to select an icon, pressing one or more control buttons, and any like active user interaction. Passive interfacing may include viewing a text file, viewing an image, viewing a movie, listening to a song, listening to audio, or feeling a vibration or motion.
One problem with existing personal computing devices is that such devices often perform certain functions regardless of whether users are passively interfacing with the devices. In other words, personal computer devices are not able to determine whether a non-active or passive user is present and, subsequently, are unable to perform certain operations to accommodate the passive user. For example, a PC may automatically activate a screen saver every five minutes regardless of whether a user is viewing the PC's display screen. Thus, a passive user is often inconveniently required to actively perform an interaction with the PC at least every five minutes to prevent the initiation of the screen saver or to deactivate the screen saver after it is initiated. Accordingly, there is a need for providing a user interface for a personal computing device that is capable of determining when a passive user is present without the need for active user interaction with the device.
Another problem with personal computing devices is that such devices often cannot efficiently determine whether certain users have the authority to perform certain functions of the personal computing device. For example, to access a restricted computer application, a user may be required to actively enter a password. Accordingly, there is a need for a more efficient and reliable user access control mechanism for personal computing devices.